


Cross Purposes

by JohnAmendAll



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Community: dw_straybunnies, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-24
Updated: 2013-02-24
Packaged: 2017-12-03 12:09:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/698092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JohnAmendAll/pseuds/JohnAmendAll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Monk has been arrested for tampering with the timeline. But he's not the only person in the room with an interest in changing history.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cross Purposes

**Author's Note:**

> From the [dw_straybunnies](http://dw-straybunnies.livejournal.com) three [prompts of the month](http://dw-straybunnies.livejournal.com/45971.html):
> 
> Any Meddling Monk fic; Eight/Romana II; Jack Harkness/Second Doctor/In the dark

According to its design specifications, the saloon of the spaceliner _Emerald Star_ could comfortably accommodate a thousand people. Even at this time, in the small hours of ship's night, it would have been reasonable to expect a few dozen people to be present. In fact, had anybody chanced to look into the room at that unsociable hour, they would only have seen three men, of wildly differing appeareance and dress. 

"I shall be raising the strongest possible complaints with your superiors," one of the men was saying — by appearance, an affluent, middle-aged businessman. He held up his handcuffed hands. "I am merely an innocent traveller, and you have no right to detain me." 

"Take it up with who you like," one of his captors said — a tall, handsome man, clad in the uniform of an Earthforce captain. He tapped the device on his wrist. "You've attempted three separate acts of sabotage on this ship in an attempt to stop Princess Elizabeth reaching the New Triton jump point in time for her meeting with Lord Vorti. That's a Class Three violation of history." 

"I have done no such thing!" the first man blustered. 

"Oh, I think you have," the third traveller said. He cut a poor figure beside his colleague, being small, shabbily dressed, and completely devoid of the Time Agent's air of authority. As his captive knew all too well, he was by some margin the more dangerous of the two. "I recognised you as soon as I saw you. Changing your face doesn't fool me for a moment: I know who you really are." 

"Everyone who reads the news would know I'm Rudolph Butler." 

"That wasn't your name when we met in Northumbria in 1066, was it?" The Doctor gave 'Butler' a triumphant smile. "And if you aren't a time traveller, perhaps you'd like to explain why you've got a verteron pulse modulator in your sponge bag? Those things won't be invented for another two hundred years." 

For a moment, it looked as if 'Butler' was going to stick to his story and accuse the other two of planting the damning evidence. In the event, he shrugged. 

"All I was doing was delaying this ship by a couple of weeks," he said. "No- one would have been hurt. Lord Vorti would have been met by a proper diplomat rather than an arrogant young princess completely devoid of tact, and an entirely pointless war could have been avoided. And you're going to stop me doing all that for the sake of a few trifling bureaucratic rules. I suppose I wouldn't expect anything better of you, Captain, but really, Doctor, you too? There was a time when you yourself weren't averse to a few beneficial changes in the timeline." 

The Doctor shook his head. "Minor corrections are one thing. You're talking about rewriting the lives of millions, on a whim. And with that sort of tampering, once you start, you've got to go on." 

"Of course! You expect me to leave my good works half-done? My dear people, please be reasonable—" 

"Can it," the captain said briskly. "You can say all that in court. Doctor, I assume your people will deal with him?" 

The Doctor nodded. "One way or another. Let's get him back to my TARDIS." 

"Just a moment!" the Monk protested, as they started to lead him away. "You said three acts of sabotage, didn't you?" 

"The pulse modulator to poison the engine reaction," the captain said. "The tapeworm in the navigation computer. And then whatever you were doing with the portable wormhole generator when we caught you." 

"I'd located an area of hyperspace with similar enough characteristics to our current surroundings that no-one would have noticed we'd moved until it was too late. Ingenious, don't you think?" The Monk seemed to realise he'd had something else to say, before he'd been sidetracked by self-congratulation. "But I certainly didn't have anything to do with the navigation computer." 

"Doesn't matter," the captain said. "Even if you try and wriggle out of that charge we've got enough evidence to nail you on the other two." 

"Yes, but if he didn't sabotage the navcomp—" The Doctor shook his head. "Let's get him safely under lock and key and worry about that later." 

As soon as the double doors slid shut behind the three, Romana peered over the sofa she'd been hiding behind. 

"All clear," she said, and rose to her feet, revealing that she was wearing nothing save a velvet jacket draped over her shoulders. "Which one of them was you?" 

"Do you have to ask?" The Doctor — centuries older and wiser than the one who had just left — also emerged from behind the sofa. Save for a towel clutched around his waist, he too was devoid of clothing. "The little scruffy one." 

She nodded. "On probation from the High Council?" 

"That's right. And too scared of them to do the right thing." He shook his head, sadly. "Anyway, that explains how the navcomp got reset." 

"I hope you kept a copy of the tapeworm." 

"Of course." The Doctor made to pat his pockets, before realising that he wasn't the one wearing them. "The Monk was right even if he didn't realise why. Without the distraction of this war, humanity will be at its full strength for the next wave of Dalek attacks." 

"Funny to think that in their timeline, the Daleks never got closer than the Cygnes system." She took his hand. "Come on. Let's get that tapeworm back into the navcomp and move on to the next objective. We're behind time as it is." 

"Aren't you forgetting something?" 

"Am I? Oh, yes. Pick up our clothes. They just _had_ to make their move when we were... occupied, didn't they?" She pushed her blonde hair back, looking suddenly weary. "In the old days I'd never have let anyone see me like this, even you." 

"In the old days you didn't have anything worse than Time Lords to worry about," the Doctor replied grimly, as they made their way to the door. 

"True." She gave a brief, exhausted smile. "If it wasn't for — well, us — I'd have given up long since. It's amazing what war's done to us all. Which do you think your younger self would find most shocking? The reckless alterations to time, or the relationship with an ex-President of the High Council?" 

The Doctor shook his head. "You know he mustn't find out about either." 

"Don't worry." With an effort, Romana adopted the carefree manner of earlier days. "Between us, I think we'll manage to keep him in the dark."


End file.
